Privacy Policy

What we collect

Pool location

The app needs a point on the map to watch. You can let the app read your device location to place that point, or set it yourself by typing an address or a pair of coordinates. That coordinate is sent to our servers so we can work out which lightning is near it, and it is stored on your device so the app remembers your pool between launches. No lightning provider ever receives it. We read NOAA's public satellite lightning data in bulk and do that matching on our own servers, so your pool's location is never sent on to a lightning source.

Three other companies see the coordinate, or the text you use to find it, and none of them is a lightning source. The app sends the coordinate to a weather service to draw the sky behind your pool and the temperature on the map; the Weather item below says which service, by app version. The map itself is Apple's, so drawing the area around your pin sends that area to Apple. If you find your pool by typing an address, the app sends what you type to our address search provider as you type it; nothing goes there when you use your device location or type coordinates instead. All three are listed under Service providers below.

We request location access while you are using the app. Background location is used only if you turn on My location's lightning alerts and allow it in iOS, and no history of where you have been is kept. The pools you save (their name, address, coordinates, and settings) are stored with your account so they back up, follow you to a new phone, and can be shared with people you invite. Those settings include a pool's measured size and shape, if you enter them, and a pool's kind (such as backyard or community), its chlorine type and its season dates, if the pool's owner enters them; everyone who shares the pool can see them.

My location (optional)

If you turn on My location's lightning alerts, the app reads your device location while you use it and, if you allow it in iOS, in the background, so it can alert you when lightning comes near you, even while the app is closed. The app sends our alert server your latest location (a pair of coordinates, how precise iOS says it is, and when it was taken) when you have moved a short distance or opened the app. The server keeps only that latest location, replacing it each time, alongside your device's alert registration, and uses it only to find lightning near you and send the alerts you chose. It is never written to our account database, never sold, never used for advertising, and never sent to a lightning data source. It is deleted when you turn My location's alerts off, sign out or delete your account, and within about a month after you delete the app (our server learns that the next time it tries to reach your phone, and it checks at least once a month).

While the app is open and you have allowed location, the app also sends your current location to our alert server to find lightning near you, and while the pool list or the My location page is open, it sends that location, rounded to about a kilometre, to our weather service to show the weather where you are; neither keeps it beyond short-lived service logs.

Your account

The app requires an account. You can sign in with Apple, with Google, or, for accounts that have one provisioned, with an email address and password. We store the email address and sign-in identifier your chosen method provides and, only if you add them, optional profile details: your name, phone number, birthday, gender, and how many people live in your home (a bracket such as "4" or "6 or more", never a list of who lives with you). Every one of these is optional and can be changed or cleared in the app at any time. We use them only to understand who uses ClearToSwim and to decide what to build next; nothing in the app depends on them, and they are never used for advertising or shared with the owner of a pool you join. If you share a pool or join one, we store that membership. If you allow notifications, we store your device's push token so alerts can reach you. If you turn on email alerts for a pool, our alert service holds your account email address and sends those alerts to it through our email delivery provider. For each pool on your alert list, our alert server keeps a short history: when the pool's light changed (open, caution, closed, outside its hours, or checking) and how many lightning strikes fell inside its rings in each quarter hour, and when the pool was put on your alert list, taken off it and put back. It is kept with your account and that pool, or with your phone's alert registration when no account is proven, and it holds no location of yours. You can delete your account inside the app, which permanently removes the account and everything stored under it. A pool's history on our alert server is deleted within 10 days.

Automations (optional)

If you turn on an automation for a pool, our alert service keeps the web address you enter and a signing key for it, and each time that pool's light changes it sends that address the pool's name, its status and the time. It never sends your location or your email. Removing the automation, the pool or your account deletes them. If you connect IFTTT, our alert service also keeps your IFTTT Webhooks key, and sends IFTTT the pool's name, its status and the alert's title each time that pool's light changes. Removing the automation, the pool or your account deletes it.

Your email alerts and automations keep working while the app stays installed, even if you do not open it. They stop when you turn them off, sign out or delete your account, and within about a month after you delete the app (our server learns that the next time it tries to reach your phone, and it checks at least once a month).

The camera

The app asks for the camera in one place: scanning the QR code on a pool invite. The scanner reads the code on your device and looks at nothing else. No photo or video is recorded, none is sent to us, and the camera is not used anywhere else in the app. You can decline the permission and type the invite code instead, which ends up in the same place.

Diagnostic information

We may collect crash reports and basic technical diagnostics (device model, operating system version, app version, error details) to find and fix problems. If you email us about an issue, we keep what you send until the issue is resolved.

What we do not collect

• No contacts, photos, microphone, or health data.
• No location history.
• No payment details. Purchases run through Apple, and we never see your card.
• No password for most accounts. Sign-in runs through Apple or Google. Email-and-password sign-in exists only for accounts provisioned with one, and the password is handled by our sign-in service, never stored by us in plain text.

Advertising

The free version of the app shows ads. We use contextual advertising, which means ads are chosen without tracking you across other companies' apps and websites. Because of that, the app does not ask for App Tracking Transparency permission.

Ads appear only inside the app. On the free plan, one banner stays in place as you move around the app, and a full-screen ad can appear when you go back from a pool to your list: at most once every 15 minutes, never in your first day, and never while lightning is near a pool the app is watching. Removing ads is included with a Pro subscription. Our advertising provider is Google AdMob, configured to serve non-personalized ads.

Purchases

In-app purchases and subscriptions are processed by Apple through the App Store. Apple tells us that a purchase happened so the app can unlock the right features. Apple does not give us your payment information. Apple's own privacy policy governs that transaction, and subscriptions are managed in your Apple account settings.

Notifications

If you allow notifications, we use them to tell you when the pool state changes, for example when lightning is detected in your radius or when the all clear is reached, and, if you turn them on, when lightning strikes near your pool. We do not use notifications for marketing. You can turn them off in iOS Settings at any time, though the app is much less useful without them. Pool care reminders you choose, your season checklists, and the times you mark a water test stay on your phone and are not sent to us.

Service providers

We share the minimum necessary with companies that help us run the service:

• Hosting and infrastructure providers that operate our servers, our database, and this website. Your account, your saved pools, and their coordinates are stored there.
• Weather. To draw the sky and show the sun, heat and rain for a pool or for My location, the app sends that place's location, rounded to about a kilometre, to ClearToSwim's own weather service. That service asks our weather provider, MET Norway (the Norwegian Meteorological Institute), or Apple Weather if we turn it on, and keeps each answer for up to half an hour. It also keeps the hourly rainfall for each area it is asked about, rounded to about a kilometre, for three days, so the app can say how much rain has fallen. It keeps no record of who asked beyond short-lived service logs. In app versions before 1.3, your phone sends the pool's location directly to Open-Meteo.com instead.
• An address search provider, the public Photon service run by Komoot, which receives the text you type while you are searching for a pool address. It gets that text and nothing else.
• Apple, which draws the map under your pool pin and so receives the map area around it, handles Sign in with Apple when you use it, carries push notifications to your phone, and processes purchases.
• Google, which handles Google sign-in when you choose it.
• A push notification service, Expo, which receives your device's push token and the text of an alert so it can hand that alert to Apple for delivery.
• An email delivery provider, which receives your email address and the alert content when you turn on email alerts.
• An advertising provider, Google AdMob, for the free tier, on a contextual basis as described above.

Our lightning source is deliberately not on that list. We read NOAA's public satellite lightning data as whole files covering the Americas and decide what is near your pool on our own servers, so no lightning provider ever receives your pool's coordinate, your radius, or anything else about you.

We do not sell or rent personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

How long we keep things

Lightning queries are short-lived, and we do not build long-term profiles from them. Diagnostic data is kept only as long as it is useful for fixing problems. Your pools and profile details stay backed up to your account until you remove them or delete the account; deleting the app alone leaves the account copy in place so your pools return when you sign back in. A pool's history is kept for 8 days, a day at a time. When a pool leaves your alert list, its history stops and what was kept is deleted within 10 days. A pool leaves the alert list when you remove it, sign out or delete your account, and within about a month after you delete the app.

Children

ClearToSwim is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. Adults supervising a pool are the intended users. If you believe a child has provided us information, email privacy@cleartoswim.com and we will delete it.

Your choices and rights

• Location: deny or revoke it in iOS Settings. You can still set your pool location manually.
• Notifications: turn them off in iOS Settings.
• On this device: deleting the app removes the data stored on your device. Your account copy stays until you delete the account (in the app under Account) so your pools return when you sign back in.
• Requests: depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, or delete personal information we hold. Email privacy@cleartoswim.com and we will honor applicable requests.

This website

cleartoswim.com is a static site. It sets no advertising cookies and runs no cross-site tracking scripts. Our hosting provider processes standard server request logs for security and reliability. Web fonts are served from this site itself, so loading a page sends nothing to a font CDN or any other third party.

Changes

If we change this policy we will update the effective date above, and for material changes we will make reasonable effort to say so in the app or on this site.

Contact

Borah Logistics LLC, Dothan, Alabama, United States
privacy@cleartoswim.com

ClearToSwim is an informational aid, not a safety guarantee. Always follow official warnings. If you see lightning or hear thunder, get out of the water and take shelter in a substantial building or a hard-topped vehicle. Wait until 30 minutes after the last thunder before returning to the water.